Stormwater Management Action Plan

What is stormwater?

Stormwater, or urban runoff, is rainwater or snowmelt that runs over surfaces such as lawns, roofs, streets, and parking lots. With no action, stormwater can become polluted by litter, dirt, bacteria, chemicals, and oils that it picks up along its journey. When polluted stormwater reaches a water body, it can have a harmful impact on the plants and animals in and around the water. It can also affect people who swim or fish in the water. SMAP Basins_01-11-2022 Opens in new window

Why is the City implementing a Stormwater Management Action Plan (SMAP)?

The Washington State Department of Ecology has added the development of a Stormwater Management Action Plan (SMAP) to their 2019-2024 Phase II Municipal Stormwater Permit requirements. Stormwater Planning, including development of a SMAP, is one of several components of the City of Port Angeles' Stormwater Management Program (SWMP), being implemented daily to protect our valuable fresh and marine receiving waters. More about the City's SWMP can be found here. More information about the Phase II Stormwater Permit is available on the Department of Ecology website.

How will the SMAP benefit our community?

We all know that time and money are finite resources. We also know that actions must be taken now to preserve our pristine areas and improve those already impacted. This effort is intended to get the ball rolling in the most efficient and effective direction.

Developing a SMAP helps the City to critically asses our watersheds, identify priority basins that would receive the most benefit from intervention, and develop a basin-specific action plan for improvement. The resulting action plan will include best management practices (BMPs) that are applicable and tailored to the specific priority basin selected for consideration. Different basins have different challenges and will require different solutions. A fully developed basin may benefit most from a retrofit project-type BMP, such as the design of a regional stormwater facility where treatment and/or flow control is installed into an existing stormwater conveyance main. A more undeveloped basin may benefit more from a less-tangible BMP, such as improved ordinances geared towards minimizing impacts from future development and protecting receiving waters.

Once completed, this plan will be used to inform staff on how and where we can take action to receive the most benefit in our community. It may also be used to partner with basin-protection stakeholders and secure funding to bring the action plan to life.

View Port Angeles Basins Delineations (PDF)

  1. Project Phases
  2. Project Documents
  3. Interactive GIS Map
SMAP Phase  Action  Timeline
Phase 1: 
Receiving Water Conditions Assessment
 Assess the conditions of our natural bodies of water to identify which are most likely to benefit from stormwater management planning and delineate the drainage basins
Completed March 2022
Phase 2: 
Prioritization 
 Categorize and rank drainage basins to identify one (1) priority basin that would benefit from implementation of Stormwater Best Management Practices (BMPs)
Completed
June 2022
Phase 3:
SMAP
 Select stormwater projects, policy and code changes, and management actions for priority catchment 
Completed March 2023

How can I get involved? 

The review period closed on January 16, 2023. Comments received were considered and used to guide the final draft Phase 3 report for the Valley Creek Basin. The City of Port Angeles thanks you for your feedback! 

Project Contact

If you have any questions regarding the development of a Stormwater Management Action Plan (SMAP), please contact the City's Stormwater Engineer at stormwater@cityofpa.us.